Courtney Van Houten

Biography

Courtney Harold Van Houtven received her B.S. from the University of California at Davis, her M.Sc. from the University of Minnesota, and her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  She joined the Center for Excellence in Health Services Research and Development in Primary Care at the Durham Veteran’s Administration in 2003.  She is also an Associate Professor in General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center.  In 2007-2008 she was a visiting assistant professor of economics at Tilburg University, The Netherlands.

Dr. Van Houtven’s aging and economics research interests encompass how family caregiving affects health care utilization, expenditures, health, work, and wealth outcomes of care recipients and caregivers; she is also interested in understanding how to best to support family caregivers to optimize caregiver and care recipient outcomes.  Published in top field journals in health economics (Journal of Health Economics, Health Economics), Dr. Van Houtven’s work on informal care is widely cited internationally.  In an R-01 from The National Institutes of Nursing Research, NIH, Dr. Van Houtven is examining the relationship between family structure, informal caregiving, and long-term care insurance and long-term care use.   She also is testing the effectiveness of an incentivized skills training program for family caregivers of Veteran patients referred to community-based long-term care (VA HSR&D IIR 11-345).